A man who was killed when he leaned out of a train window was a railway enthusiast who had just got a job as a train engineer.

Simon Brown (24), from East Grinstead in Sussex, suffered a severe head injury and died after it is thought he was struck by an oncoming train.

Mr Brown had embarked on a rail career as an apprentice for Southern at the age of 18. Southern operates the Gatwick Express service on which he was killed.

He volunteered at a local railway as a child and had recently got the job of an engineering technician with Hitachi. His role was to help oversee the introduction of new electric trains on the Great Western railway line.

A friend of Mr Brown, Reuben Smith, has set up a fund to raise money for Mr Brown's funeral and to help buy a train in his memory.

On the memorial fund webpage, Mr Brown was described as "a real light of the railway world" who "would bend over backwards to help anyone".

Mr Smith said: "Simon was always happy, he was that friend that always had a stupid grin on his face. He was always there if you needed him and saw the best in everyone. Trains were his life. He worked on the Bluebell Railway since he was a kid and that's how we met."

Mike Brown, the 24-year-old's father, told the Evening Standard: "As soon as he could toddle, Simon was into trains. At nine he volunteered with the Bluebell Railway in West Sussex and became a station master."